Tag: meal

(Watching Hamlet on Masterpiece Theatre as I write this, so beware the preposterous prose.) And why should you, the blog reader, pay attention to yet another insipid recipe-post in an unknown blog? Here’s why. Stephen—man of few praises—is sharing this repast with me. About three-fourths of the way through the first plate, I say to Stephen, “Well, you haven’t said anything about the new recipe yet.” A significant pause insues, and then, “I think it’s a little triumph,” he says, “Interesting textures, lovely blend of seasonings, healthy, balanced food.” So there you have it, don’t read on at your own peril. Heh.

I had a nice surprise this morning. My neighbor, Dayle, lives two doors down the street in the same 1895 six-unit three-story yellow-brick row house building that we live in. She and her husband were one of the first tenants of this building when it was rehabbed in the early ’80s, so she knows all the block gossip. Stephen and I were out at the doctor’s this morning, and when I got home, there was a message from Dayle. She was providing the ingredients and recipe for the entrée to a fabulous supper, and all I had to do was put them together!

This has been a rough year. Well, just for starters, mom died this January. Lorene was the one person that I knew I could always talk to, from the time I was very young, for about 70 years. One of the things I most valued about mom was that she was a really good cook, and we talked about cooking a lot. So was my dad, my grandmother, and her mother a good cook, but it was my mother’s cooking that made my day. Once I set up housekeeping on my own, never very many days went by without my cooking something “Like mom used to make,” a practice which continues to this day.

Cooking like mom becomes a special challenge when your partner has food sensitivities. Readers of this blog will remember that we are currently living in a gluten-free household. We are also avoiding OD’ing on certain other foods, cow’s milk being one of these. Now milk and flour were staples of my mom’s cooking, so to continue in this cooking tradition, I have to be really inventive and experimental. And once in a while, I do whip up a meal or two that I can brag is “just like mom used to make.” Tonight was such a night, and I am proud to report it one day after what would have been her 96th birthday.

Jim explains how he got home late and made a fish, rice and salad meal in time to set down for the news. And it was a good bargain, too.

Tonight I drove the truck back from the repair shop through dreadful traffic. I sat for 15 minutes on one block. Usually we watch the Lehrer Hour at 6 while we eat dinner, and I arrived home at 5:45. And that is what we did while having a wonderful Friday meal. I now am going to tell you how I accomplished this. Here is the final plate as served.